Caleb Williams takes accountability for costly mistakes that nearly cost the Bears against the Buccaneers
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had his first 4-INT game of his football career and yet the Bears still managed to hang on and win on Sunday night.
The Chicago Bears pulled off a wild win on Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and it wasn’t because of quarterback Caleb Williams, even if Williams made two huge plays on the final drive to win the game.
Williams hurt the Bears a lot more than he helped them tonight. After a strong start in which Williams was making some miraculous throws, Williams seemingly got a little overconfident in his abilities. That led to two early interceptions, followed by two more as the game continued.
It was the first four-interception game of Williams’ football career. He’s never done that in the NFL, in college (at USC or Oklahoma), or even in high school. The fact the Bears even won this game was incredible and the good news is Williams owned up for his mistakes.
Caleb Williams takes accountability after 4-INT game against the Buccaneers
Speaking with reporters after the win, Caleb Williams took full responsibility for all four of the mistakes he made throughout this game. It’s the kind of leadership and accountability you love to see.
“It’s frustrating,” Williams said. “Two of them tried to be throw aways, one of them I made a dumb decision, and then the last one got tipped up in the air. You go back, look at it, and see what I could have done (differently). One of them, I could’ve just tossed the ball to Colston (Loveland) instead of falling out and trying to throw an incompletion. The other one, I gotta juice it in there on the last one to Luther (Burden). The one earlier, gotta just check it down, it wasn’t the right coverage and I made a bad decision. That happens and you learn from it. The other one was the same thing.”
At times, it seemed like Williams was trying to do too much. Based on his reaction, it feels like he felt the same way. We all know he can be Superman, and the last few weeks we’ve seen him have a lot of success as Clark Kent. Sunday was too much Superman and it almost cost the team.
“I just try to be the big eraser,” Williams added. “That’s what I’ve been, that’s what I will be. I gotta keep doing that and being the big eraser. Today, I wasn’t.”
It was certainly some unusual play from Williams. Entering this game, Williams had the NFL record for most consecutive regular-season games (36) with at least 20 pass attempts and no more than one interception. Sometimes streaks come to an end, and sometimes it does in a glaring way. But what happened on Sunday is not going to discourage Williams.
“I’m going to throw until I can’t throw no more,” Williams said. “That’s how I live. I work my tail off to be in this position. I’ll never not throw the ball. I could throw 100 picks in one game. If it comes down to it, I’m going to throw that pass that I threw to Colston or if it’s a tighter window I’m going to rip it in there. That’s how I grew up, that’s how I am. I don’t get gun-shy. That’s not me.”
Occasionally, games like these happen in the NFL. Tom Brady threw four interceptions in a single game six times during his NFL career. The most important thing is what you take away from the play, and how you respond after the play.
Williams understood where he went wrong on those plays, and responded in a positive way late in this game to seal the win. That’s the growth you want to see from a quarterback in a tough game like this.
